"He who binds himself to joy; Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies; Lives in eternity's sunrise." - William Blake

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” - CG Jung

“’Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?’ ‘Supposing it didn’t,’ said Pooh. After careful thought, Piglet was comforted by this.” - AA Milne

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away.” - Lord Byron

“I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth.” - Henry Miller

“The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the bottomless abyss of oblivion.” - William James

“Within you there is stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” - Hermann Hesse

Life is uncertain. As well as being the source of much joy, wonder and happiness, at times life can also be sad, demanding, complex, frustrating, painful, and downright overwhelming. Before we realise it, the lives we have fashioned and orchestrated for ourselves start to become problematic, negatively affecting our well-being, self-esteem, relationships and ability to cope.

Along the way we collect a number of external ‘over the counter’ remedies to help take the edge off our dissatisfaction and disquiet with life. These antidotes for living work fantastically well on our anxiety in the short-term because they change the way we feel, momentarily relieving the pain of what it is to be human. In the long-term however, they often create more of the very same distress and unhappiness that we were so anxious to avoid.

This is what we get when we look outside of ourselves to fix something that comes from within.

Fortunately there is another way:

By learning to embrace experience as it arises, we can change our
relationship to stress, anxiety and times of difficulty.
We do this through the practice of mindfulness.